The Impact of Obesity on Your Body and Health

Obesity is when your body has too much fat. Obesity can cause a lot of damage to your body. People with severe obesity are more likely to have other diseases. These include type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and many more. Combined with obesity, these diseases may lead people to have a lower quality of health. In some cases, these can lead to disability or early death.

Diabetes

Obesity is a major cause of type 2 diabetes. People affected by obesity or severe obesity are about 10 times more likely to have type 2 diabetes (1). Type 2 diabetes can nearly double the risk of death (2). Type 2 diabetes can lead to:

Amputations

Heart disease

Stroke

Blindness

Kidney disease

High blood pressure

Circulatory and nerve defects

Hard-to-heal infections

Impotence

And more

Hypertension

Obesity is a major risk factor for high blood pressure(also known as “hypertension")(3).About 3 out of 4 hypertension cases are related to obesity(4). Hypertension increases the risk of other diseases. These include coronary heart disease (CHD), congestive heart failure (CHF), stroke, and kidney disease.

Heart Disease

Heart disease kills about 600,000 people every year in the United States. The American Heart Association considers obesity a major risk factor for heart disease. Large studies show that the risk for heart disease increases with obesity(5). People with severe obesity are at a higher risk for coronary artery disease. This means they have a higher risk of a heart attack.

Obesity increases your risk of heart failure. Severe obesity is associated with irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias). These arrhythmias can triple the risk of cardiac arrest. However, some excess weight can protect against dying from heart failure after the diagnosis is made(6).

Respiratory Disorders

People with obesity have reduced lung capacity. These people are at higher risk for respiratory infections. They are more likely to have asthma and other respiratory disorders. Asthma has been shown to be three to four times more common among people with obesity(8).

More than half of those affected by obesity (around 50-60 percent) have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) In cases of severe obesity, this figure is around 90 percent7). OSA is a very serious breathing disorder. OSA occurs when excess fat in the neck, throat, and tongue block air passageways during sleep. This blockage causes apnea, which means a person stops breathing for a time. A person with OSA may have hundreds of apnea episodes each night. Apnea episodes reduce the amount of oxygen in a person’s blood.

OSA may lead to high blood pressure, pulmonary hypertension, and heart failure. OSA can cause sudden cardiac death and stroke. Because apnea episodes interrupt the normal sleep cycle, you may not reach restful sleep. This can lead to fatigue and drowsiness. If untreated, this drowsiness may raise your risk of motor vehicle accidents.

Cancer

Cancer affects more than half a million lives per year in the United States alone. Obesity is believed to cause up to 90,000 cancer deaths per year. As body mass index (BMI) increases, so does your risk of cancer and death from cancer. These cancers include:

Endometrial cancer

Cervical cancer

Ovarian cancer

Postmenopausal breast cancer

Colorectal cancer

Esophageal cancer

Pancreatic cancer

Gallbladder cancer

Liver cancer

Kidney cancer

Thyroid cancer

Prostate cancer

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

Multiple myeloma

Leukemia

For people with severe obesity, the death rate increases for all types of cancer. The death rate is 52 percent higher for men and 62 percent higher for women(9).

Other Conditions

Alzheimer’s Disease: Studies find that obesity during middle-age may contribute to conditions that increase the risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease later in life(12).

Kidney Disease: Hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure are major contributors to kidney disease and kidney failure. All of these conditions are caused or made worse by obesity.

Suicide: Studies have shown a correlation between severe obesity and major depressive disorder (12). Physical and social discrimination issues surrounding obesity may contribute to this depression. Studies are mixed on whether obesity is associated with higher suicide rates. However, most studies seem to suggest lower rates of suicide in people with obesity.

Septicemia: Septicemia is a serious infection that can quickly lead to septic shock and death. Studies have shown that people affected by obesity, particularly severe obesity, are at higher risk of septicemia.

Liver Disease: Obesity is the major cause for fatty liver and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Most people with severe obesity have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Fatty liver disease can cause scarring of the liver, resulting in worsened liver function, and this can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure.

Other conditions that could become life-threatening: maternal gestational diabetes and preeclampsia during pregnancy, increased incidence of miscarriages and stillborns, gallbladder disease, pancreatitis, and more.

Landsberg, Lewis, et al. "Obesity‐related hypertension: Pathogenesis, cardiovascular risk, and treatment—A position paper of the The Obesity Society and the American Society of Hypertension." Obesity 21.1 (2013): 8-24.

Onyike, Chiadi U., et al. "Is obesity associated with major depression? Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey." American journal of epidemiology 158.12 (2003): 1139-1147.